On Monday, former President Donald Trump filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court, asking that they block the Internal Revenue Service from turning over his tax returns to congressional investigators. It comes following last week's ruling by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that cleared the way for the documents to be transmitted to the House Ways and Means Committee. Meanwhile, Trump faces a civil suit from New York State, alleging that his family business kept two sets of books to avoid paying taxes while fraudulently inflating assets to banks and insurers.
But even though the Supreme Court has six justices sympathetic to right wing causes, including three justices personally appointed by Trump, former impeachment counsel Norm Eisen told CNN's Kate Bolduan that the former president is unlikely to prevail in this gambit.
"Do you think the Supreme Court will step in here after the long road this has traveled?" asked Bolduan. "How much time do you think this buys Donald Trump?"
"I don't think the Supreme Court is likely to step in here," said Eisen, who has previously suggested new information about Trump's classified document stash at Mar-a-Lago puts him at grave risk of prosecution. "The two lower courts have found that Congress has a right to take a look at these tax returns. I just don't think there is a basis. But we'll know for sure pretty soon whether Trump will get the delay he seeks."
"What is this really about?" Bolduan asked Eisen, noting that he had personally sought to obtain Trump's tax returns when he was advising Congress on impeachment.
"Congress is looking — the House is looking at the presidential audit program, government review of presidential tax returns," said Eisen. "It's inadequate, and they need to get these tax returns in order to fix it. For example, it completely failed to unearth the kind of wrongdoing that is alleged by New York courts that's on trial now, so we need to fix that. And that's Congress' reason to want to see these tax returns. Of course, they're interesting for other reasons."
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